Pentagon Seeking to Avoid Congress on Syria Strike Costs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-06/obama-likely-to-avoid-congress-on-cost-of-strike-on-syria.html

Pentagon Seeking to Avoid Congress on Syria Strike Costs

(snip)

The Pentagon has notified congressional appropriators that it won’t seek added funds to pay for a strike, said a Defense Department official and a Republican aide on the House Appropriations Committee. Both requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Defense budget analysts say weapon systems like Tomahawk cruise missiles are already in the Pentagon’s inventory, and personnel costs are on the books. The added expenses of any limited operation probably will be small enough that the Pentagon can absorb it from existing funds, which include a wartime contingency budget of $93 billion this fiscal year

Two defense analysts estimated the total cost of the limited strike envisioned by Obama as between $300 million and $1 billion, depending on how many cruise missiles are launched and how long the attack lasts.

(more at link)

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Sequester forces federal, state and local governments to cut hours and jobs, to cut funds for needed social programs like head start and meals on wheels. Deficit concerns have our politicians discussing cuts to social security. There is the looming fight over raising the debt limit. But the pentagon has enough money in this fiscal year for attacking Syria many times over. 

There's the money for properly caring for our own people. Right there! The government admits they have the money but they just don't want to spend it caring for their own citizens. Instead they say they are broke (which they've just admitted is a lie) and use that as an excuse to neglect their own needy citizens. And then are shocked when people don't readily support another war.